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Which video format to use with Nuendo/Cubase
Nuendo (Screenshot)
Last week I tried to make my first sound design demo using Nuendo3 teamed up with Reason4. It was a makeover of all sound in NBA Live 10 trailer. The original video was downloaded in WMV format which I thought it should compatible with my Nuendo on Windows. After imported WMV into Nuendo, it could be played but came many problems.
In edit mode, when I move any events to sync with video, the video was very very slow to update the current frame showing on video player. I don’t know why DirectShow video player can’t playback this WMV, I had to use DirectX instead. Furthermore, when I played the video after some SFX was placed in a right spot, everything was off-sync. How Come? I assumed that WMV required much processing power to decode. So, I decide to convert the video to something which requires the least processing power. Therefore I convert it to AVI (Uncompressed). It came up with 800MB for 30-sec video.
AVI (Uncompressed) worked very well in Nuendo but its size was what I concerned. Searching in Google for suitable video format for Nuendo/Cubase took me to this page. (http://knowledgebase.steinberg.net/253_1.html) It’s such a useful information from Steinberg’s knowledgebase.
According to the knowledgebase, AVI format with Cinepak codec was recommended for Windows PC. Indeo video codec from Intel was also mentioned. I tried them both. Both Cinepak and Indeo still worked really nice in Nuendo, compare with AVI(Uncompressed), yet much smaller in size. They were about 30MB each. AVI with Indeo codec was a bit smaller, so I used it. I finished this 30-sec demo using AVI(Indeo) video with no problem at all.
I’m starting new demo. Of course, the video was converted to AVI with Intel Indeo codec again. It’s my codec of choice in working with Nuendo on Windows so far.
PolyPink 